Dick Van Dyke: ‘ I was mostly drunk for 15 years’

Mary Poppins star Dick Van Dyke has opened up about his 1960s battle with alcoholism in his new memoir, revealing he was mostly drunk for 15 years until he sought counselling.

In his new book “My Lucky Life in & out of Show Business”, the actor speaks out about the extent of his boozing, which turned the mild-mannered star into a short-tempered husband.

He tells Globe magazine, “(It got) to the point where I’d run a race with (my wife) Margie each night to see if I could get drunk before she could get dinner on the table.”

Van Dyke, who insists he never drank when he was working on TV shows and movie sets, finally checked into rehab in Arizona in 1972 to kick his boozing habit – and he was locked in the psychiatric ward with hardcore addicts.

In the book, the actor also talks candidly about the three loves of his life – wife Margie, who he divorced in 1984, longtime partner Michelle Triola and his TV wife Mary Tyler Moore, admitting he always had a crush on the actress, but couldn’t act on his attraction because both were married.